High Liner Acquires Rubicon, a Major Shrimp Importer, for $107 million High Liner Foods has acquired all of the assets to vertically integrated shrimp importer Rubicon Resources for $107 million. Rubicon has corporate headquarters in Culver City, CA and also operates over 11 shrimp and seafood processing facilities in South East Asia. Rubicon produces products for private label brands in the US retail market. "Rubicon is an ideal acquisition for High Liner that will provide sales and earnings growth, and expedite diversification of our product portfolio to aquaculture species, like shrimp, that are experiencing stronger growth rates in North America," said High Liner’s President and CEO Keith Decker. Chris Oliver, the executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, appears to have the inside track to become the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The latest talk within the industry is that Oliver is indeed the pick that the Commerce Dept. has submitted to the White House. The recommendation still has to get White House approval, and also a Congressional approval of the nomination is needed. If this is confirmed, it would be excellent news for the entire US seafood industry, as it would give NMFS stability and deep experience at a time of significant budget and regulatory review. The commercial and recreation seafood industry in the US supported 1.6 million full and part-time jobs in 2015 according to NOAA’s annual Fisheries Economics of the United States report, which was released this week. The commercial sector was responsible for 1.2 million jobs and generated $144.2 billion in sales, $39.7 billion in income, and $60.6 billion in value-added impacts nationwide These figures were above the five-year-average for the industry NOAA said in its report. “NOAA’s reports demonstrate the importance of seafood, both domestic and imported, to the economy and serves to highlight the more than 1.6 million jobs supported by all seafood," said John Connelly, President of the National Fisheries Institute. In other news, the Pacific Whiting season is set to open May 15th, but the status of the Newport Surimi plant that had been operated by Trident is still unclear. Pacific Seafood is planning to purchase the plant from Trident and continue to operate it as one of the shore-based surimi plants in Oregon and Washington. However, Pacific Seafood has been subject to a number of anti-trust lawsuits and has asked for a specific ruling from the Attorney General that operating the former Trident plant would not constitute anti-competitive behavior, or be seen as contributing to an anti-trust problem. The problem is that without a clear signal from the State, the plant is likely to close as no other buyer is available. Without the volume represented by the Newport whiting surimi plant, all Oregon whiting fishermen would suffer. Finally, a surge in Atlantic scallop landings in March has prices at auction falling faster and harder than expected. These factors have combined to drag down prices in the wholesale market in the first week of May. Landings were more than double the monthly figure from last March and were 51 percent higher from the five year monthly average for the fishery.